Adjunct and clinical academic titles recognise a significant contribution to the activities of the University.

Objective

The objective of adjunct and clinical academic titles is to provide recognition by the University to persons who make a regular and significant contribution to the activities of the University.

Appointment to an adjunct or clinical position may recognise academic achievement, or professional or career achievements in industry or the community, that are of relevance to the work of the University. Clinical appointments1 are made only in those cases where the appointee has contact with patients in a bedside or clinical setting.

An appointment, and the level at which it is made, should normally correspond to the academic achievements or professional/career achievements of the nominee. If the nominee has held a recent academic title at a university, the title conferred will not normally be at a higher level than that previously held. However, in exceptional circumstances, the Dean of the Faculty may write to the Vice-Chancellor seeking a higher status.

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Titles

Adjunct titles used for persons in all faculties, including the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, who are not in clinical roles are:

• Adjunct Lecturer
• Adjunct Senior Lecturer
• Adjunct Associate Professor
• Adjunct Professor

or

• Adjunct Teaching Fellow (equivalent to Lecturer)
• Adjunct Senior Teaching Fellow (equivalent to Senior Lecturer and above)
• Adjunct Research Fellow
• Adjunct Senior Research Fellow

Clinical titles used for persons in all faculties who are in clinical roles are:

• Clinical Lecturer
• Clinical Senior Lecturer
• Clinical Associate Professor
• Clinical Professor

Clinical titles are to be considered only for practitioners who diagnose and/or treat patients in bedside or clinical settings, including: physicians, nurses, dentists, podiatrists, pharmacists, psychologists and other allied health professionals. They are not to be considered for alternative health practitioners.

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Nominations

Nominations for clinical and adjunct appointments, including appointments to any Centre that forms part of a School, will ordinarily be made by either the Head of the School or the Dean of the Faculty. Where a Centre sits under a Faculty, the Centre's Director or the Dean of the Faculty is responsible for the nomination. Nominations for a title below that of Adjunct or Clinical Associate Professor are considered by the Dean, who may refer any particular nomination to the Faculty Adjunct and Clinical Titles Committee. Any disagreements will be resolved at the level of the Vice-Chancellor.

The nomination is to include, where appropriate:

1. details of the nominee's:
   • professional and academic qualifications
   • academic achievements
   • achievements in clinical work and research
   • professional/career achievements
2. justification for the appointment in relation to the nominee's contribution to teaching, research and community activities integral to the University
3. a recommendation on the level of appointment.

Nominations can occur at any time and are to be considered on a case by case basis. A staff member in one faculty cannot be made a clinical or adjunct staff member in another faculty. This provision is not intended to prevent cross-faculty clinical or adjunct appointments for non-UWA employees under terms agreed upon by the relevant deans. In such situations, one dean has responsibility for nomination and for recording the joint agreement.

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Authority to confer title

The Heads of School or equivalent has the authority to confer adjunct and clinical titles other than those of Adjunct Professor and Clinical Professor. Adjunct Professor and Clinical Professor titles can be conferred only by the Vice-Chancellor.

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Faculty Adjunct and Clinical Titles Committee

Nominations for the title of Adjunct or Clinical Associate Professor or above are forwarded to the relevant Faculty Adjunct and Clinical Titles Committee for consideration. Nominations for a title below that of Clinical or Adjunct Associate Professor are considered by the Dean, who may refer any particular nomination to the Faculty Adjunct and Clinical Titles Committee.

The Faculty Adjunct and Clinical Titles Committee comprises:

• the Dean as Chair
• two professors elected from and by the faculty
• the Chair of the Academic Board or nominee
• the Chair of the Academic Promotions Committee or nominee.

In cases where a Faculty other than the Faculty of Health Sciences is considering making a clinical appointment, the Faculty Adjunct and Clinical Titles Committee must include a professor from the Faculty of Health Sciences appointed by the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences.

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Decisions of the Adjunct and Clinical Titles Committee

The Adjunct and Clinical Titles Committee decides

1. whether or not to seek further advice (for example, from external assessors)
2. whether or not to recommend appointment
3. if appointment is to be recommended, the level of appointment to be recommended.

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Recommendations

The recommendations of the Faculty Adjunct and Clinical Titles Committee are made to the Dean. For appointments other than those of Adjunct or Clinical Professor, the Dean may approve and subsequently report to the Vice-Chancellor. In the case of adjunct or clinical professorial titles, the recommendations of the Dean (through the Adjunct and Clinical Titles Committee) are referred to the Vice-Chancellor for approval.

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Letter of appointment

Letters of appointment are prepared by Financial and Staff Resources and copies sent to other appropriate persons, for example in the case of clinical titles, to hospital personnel.

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Length of appointment

Adjunct and Clinical titles may be awarded for up to three years at a time and may be renewed. Applications to renew a title for a further period are to be made by the Dean, Head of School or equivalent. Financial and Staff Resources will send an expiry notice to the Dean, Head of School or equivalent a minimum of six weeks prior to the expiry of appointments. New letters of appointment will be offered to re-appointments on the recommendation of the Dean, Head of School or equivalent. When it is proposed that a more senior title be granted, the full nomination process will be conducted.

The title awarded may be removed at any time should the special relationship with the University which gave rise to the nomination cease.

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Remuneration and privileges

Adjunct and clinical appointments are not remunerated by the University and are not employees.

Clinical and adjunct appointments carry the following privileges:

• access, subject to the Head of School's approval, to school resources
• UWA Campus Card and the use of the University Library on the same terms as a full-time academic staff member
• access to opportunities for personal and professional development by way of courses offered through Organisational and Staff Development Services
• UWA staff parking
• eligibility for UWA category membership of the University Club
  
• access to UWA corporate rates for QANTAS Club membership.

For completeness holding an adjunct or clinical appointment does not restrict the individual from working with the University in a separate capacity (i.e. under an employment contract or as a contractor).

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Research funds and research output

Holders of adjunct and clinical titles who use their titles in grant applications are required to cite The University of Western Australia as their institution in order that any research funds which result from their part in those applications can be directed through the University. Any research outcomes resulting from grants directed through The University of Western Australia must acknowledge the University in the byline. Adjunct and clinical appointees are encouraged to acknowledge The University of Western Australia in all of their publications.

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Academic schools

Clinical and adjunct academic title holders will become members of the academic schools concerned. For academic activities they will be responsible to the Head of School who is encouraged to optimise their involvement in school/university activities.

There is no obligation for University resources to be allocated to support this arrangement, however, where research funds are directed through the University in terms of Research funds and research output, it is expected that Heads of Schools will make appropriate infrastructure support available.

If adjunct and clinical title holders act as supervisors of higher degree by research students, they must undertake to act in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for Graduate Research Supervision and the Guidelines on Research Ethics and Research Conduct.

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Advertisement

When a position is being advertised by a hospital or other relevant institution, the possibility of a clinical academic appointment can be included with the prior permission of the University. For example ?The successful applicant may be appointed as a Clinical Associate Professor by The University of Western Australia.? In these cases, it is essential that the University is represented on the selection committee and that the relevant process as outlined in this policy is followed for having the appropriate clinical title conferred on the appointee.

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Research grants

Arrangements applying to ARC and NHMRC fellows are set out in ARC and NHMRC Fellows. The policy relating to those circumstances in which a proposed principal investigator of a grant, or director of a centre, is not a full-time academic staff member at UWA, or an ARC or NHMRC research fellow is found at Conferral of Academic Titles on Principal Investigators and Directors of Research Centres.

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Use of title

University adjunct or clinical titles are to be used as follows:

In all formal University publications, minutes etc. the full title is used; for example Clinical Lecturer X, Adjunct Professor Y.

In all formal University communications the full title is used for the address, but the salutations may be shortened to the more familiar form, for example

To Adjunct Professor Y ? Dear Professor Y

• To Adjunct Professor Y ? Dear Professor Y
• To Clinical Senior Lecturer Z ? Dear Dr Z.

The more familiar form is also used in conversation.

In research grant applications which are made through the University, holders of University titles must use their title and the relevant University school or centre.

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Cessation of Adjunct title

The University may withdraw an adjunct title at any time.

Heads of School or equivalent may remove the title of Adjunct Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer or Lecturer on their own authority within their school and may seek the approval of the SDVC to remove the title of Adjunct Professor. Heads of School or equivalent will advise individuals with Adjunct Titles of the removal of such titles (and the associated privileges) personally in writing and copy that advice to the relevant Finance and Staff Relations team to process.

The cessation of the Adjunct title will remove the privileges attached to that appointment as outlined in the section above and in the letter of affiliation.

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Appropriate resolutions

Senate Resolution 405/89

Amended: Academic Council Resolution 54/96
Amended: Senate Resolution 85/96
Amended: Senate Resolution 131/07

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